So I'm taking my 27-inch iMac into the Apple store to get its hard drive replaced soon, so was just curious if there's anything special I should do beforehand?

I'm going to bring the iMac, keyboard, mouse and power cord, but I'm still looking to see if I need to bother bringing any of the install CDs or not, or if a USB backup of Snow Leopard will be enough. And trying to wipe any of my old data that might be left from the mac and windows partitions.

My iMac falls under that hard drive replacement program I think, and I still have AppleCare anyway. I'm mostly sure its the hard drive that's the problem, according to disk utility at least. I also added some ram, but the Genius Bar probably won't tinker with that part, I hope.

Just asking how others' experience went. Tried searching, but lots of different results came up and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. I'm hoping they'll just open up my 2010 model, replace a part and then I'll take it home and start loading up my data (everything is backed up). I really doubt they would replace the whole computer, especially with the 2012 model still in short supply and the 2010 version still has a few features I'd prefer to keep.

So I'm taking my 27-inch iMac into the Apple store to get its hard drive replaced soon, so was just curious if there's anything special I should do beforehand?

I'm going to bring the iMac, keyboard, mouse and power cord, but I'm still looking to see if I need to bother bringing any of the install CDs or not, or if a USB backup of Snow Leopard will be enough. And trying to wipe any of my old data that might be left from the mac and windows partitions.

My iMac falls under that hard drive replacement program I think, and I still have AppleCare anyway. I'm mostly sure its the hard drive that's the problem, according to disk utility at least. I also added some ram, but the Genius Bar probably won't tinker with that part, I hope.

Just asking how others' experience went. Tried searching, but lots of different results came up and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. I'm hoping they'll just open up my 2010 model, replace a part and then I'll take it home and start loading up my data (everything is backed up). I really doubt they would replace the whole computer, especially with the 2012 model still in short supply and the 2010 version still has a few features I'd prefer to keep.

Yes! Make sure you have not one but 2 backup systems. I'd recommend Time Machine and then on a separate EHD created a boot clone using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, then test both the TM and bootable clone to ensure they all work OK. Then take the system in for replacement. Taking it in without a solid back up of EVERYTHING is shortsighted and possibly disastrous.

You don't need to bring anything but the imac. No keyboard, mouse or even the AC cord. If fact, they will probably ask you to take those items with you because they don't want to be responsible for those.

If you have an appointment, they may do it right there and take a few hours, so you can take it with you without having to return, or they may have you leave it.

like rk mentioned, have at least one, preferably two backups. One, time machine, and another clone is suggested. This, because you'll receive the imac back with only the OS you left it with installed. They don't usually transfer your data (unless you pay them to). So, you'll have to use migration assistant, or clone, to return you mac to the way you had it.

Many people erase, or security erase the disk before bringing it in so their data isn't left on a drive in a pile of replaced drives at Apple, although one can hope that Apple would protect peoples data.

Yeah, I've got backups. Not that there is much left on the disc. The OSX partition kept getting corrupted and needed to be reformatted. I reloaded my stuff once, but after it crashed again, that's when I figured its time to take it in.

Wasn't sure about the keyboard or powercord stuff, but if I don't need to drag that in, the better, lugging a 27-inch iMac is hard enough as is. Just hope it doesn't take too long, but guess we'll see.